Prerequisite: Dwarf
You have the blood of dwarf heroes flowing through your veins. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Whenever you take the Dodge action in combat, you can spend one Hit Die to heal yourself. Roll the die, add your Constitution modifier, and regain a number of hit points equal to the total (minimum of 1).
Dwarven Fortitude: A Meatier Meatball
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
You know, I don’t get why Wizards of the Coast hates dwarves so much. I really don’t. Stonecunning is a near useless ability carried over from older editions. They get resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves against being poisoned, which is fine, but a bit niche. One artisan’s tool proficiency isn’t worth a whole lot, and their weapon proficiencies all pigeon hole them into Strength builds, which is, let's go with comparatively lacking against Dexterity builds. Hill dwarves get a +1 HP per level and a Wisdom pump (pushing them towards basically frontline clerics only), while mountain dwarves get a +2 Strength, something they desperately need to function in most of their class options, but then get ABSOLUTELY SHAFTED with light and medium armor proficiencies. The two armor proficiencies that require your Dexterity modifier. Not heavy armor proficiency, no; light and medium. Talk about getting the short stick. Duergar get a lot better treatment, coming with advantage on saves against illusions, charms, and paralysis, superior darkvision, and some banger spells in Duergar Magic; if you’re going to play a dwarf, this by far is the best option. Still, if you’re working out of the PHB or like the Mountain or Hill Dwarf aesthetic, you’re not getting a particularly good deal with your racials.
Dwarven Fortitude enters then as a tool that asks you to take an action you probably don’t want to take to get to spend a hit dice right then and there. If you ever can get this to be a bonus action, it is excellent in combat; otherwise, this is a way to heal out of combat up to your hit dice in games where short rests are nearly non-existent, and that’s about it.
The +1 Con makes it so if you want to bump your Con up to an even number for some extra HP and bonuses to Con saves, you’re competing with Chef, Crusher, and Tavern Brawler. At tables where you’re hit dice are meaningfully used over short rests, I think all of these are going to be better options on the majority of characters. Chef gives you some team-support features and expands your artisan’s tools repertoire, Crusher empowers smashing creatures with mauls, light hammers, and warhammers (two of which you get for free on every dwarf), and Tavern Brawler is gives you a bonus action grapple option with a whole lot of potential fun with proficiency in improvised weapons. All three of these give you new tools that don’t compete with your existing resources; Dwarven Fortitude will only do that when you otherwise wouldn’t be using your hit dice.
If you’re rolling up a dwarf tank monk for some reason, Dwarven Fortitude kind of holds the whole build together by giving you a way to spend ki for Patient Defense to dodge as a bonus action and heal at the same time. Now, you’re playing a dwarf monk, who is likely leveraging Strength to hit and Con to bolster hit points with the aim of being just a giant hit point sponge. I don’t see this build being particularly busted, but bonus action dodging to recoup lost HP can be useful for staying up over a fight, and when you know your AC isn’t going to be particularly high, can be a tool you need to survive.
Out of combat, Dwarven Fortitude kind of gives you a short rest whenever you want, letting you spend hit dice to get some HP back even if you don’t have an hour. That, at its best, is fine. At its worst, it's taking a resource you already actively are expending most or all of and lets you spend it at different times when you take an action you really don’t want to be taking. Dwarven Fortitude is a niche feat for a niche race, and will find a home on nearly no character sheets for these reasons. I’d steer clear of it, even on your dwarf-iest of dwarves.
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